


After the Thrill is Gone

by charleybradburies



Series: Cap & Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang 2015 [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Artificial Intelligence, Cap_Ironman Tiny Reverse Bang, Community: 1_million_words, Community: cap_ironman, Community: hc_bingo, Community: writerverse, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Far Future, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Future, Future Fic, Growing Old Together, Husbands, Long-Term Relationship(s), M/M, Male Slash, Male-Female Friendship, Marriage, Married Couple, Moving, Old Married Couple, Older Characters, POV Male Character, POV Steve Rogers, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Feels, Photographs, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, SHIELD, Same-Sex Marriage, Slice of Life, Stark Industries, Superheroes, Superhusbands (Marvel), Tony Being Tony, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4352105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Tony decide they'd rather make their last-ever move like normal people would, and naturally, packing up all the remaining belongings and trinkets from the past fifty plus years brings up some memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Thrill is Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the third round of the Cap-Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang: Classic. 
> 
> (+ hc_bingo: [moving](http://claras-tables.livejournal.com/940.html) and writerverse July Bingo: The Long Way Down) 
> 
> Named for the Eagles' song.

Steve’s diligently setting bookcase after bookcase onto whichever AI it is that keeps coming to get them - there were so many now, he didn’t know how Tony himself remembered all their names, but then again, he remembered virtually every person he’d ever slept with, too - when Tony laughs loudly and startles him. He’s not sure how Tony can still manage to do that, either.

“Isn’t this just the weirdest thing?” Tony muses, and Steve moves closer to his husband to give him a confused, expectant look. “I mean, we’re _downsizing._ ”

“Do you really think it’s _that_ weird?”

“Well, maybe not that _alone,_ although I can’t say I’ve ever done really it before. But it’s just…looking at stuff, like all these old pictures, you know? Remembering how things were before? And how _freaking_ long ago that was? Makes me feel even _older._ ” 

“Can’t _imagine_ what stress that’s causing you.”

“Oh, shut up,” Tony grumbles, and pulls Steve in for a kiss. 

Most of theirs have been slowed down in recent years, but this particular kiss has the same unrestrained fervor as their earliest embraces had. Not that the fervor wasn’t there anymore, but after nearly thirty years, it was just automatically implied. Even now, Steve only wraps his arms around him, knowing there’s no need for a tighter grip that might somehow confirm that Tony isn’t going anywhere. 

They’d used to feel like they could lose each other every second, and it had been...odd, twenty-some years ago - upon getting the confirmation that they stayed through even a normal couple’s “better and worse”, not just their own, superhero-oriented problems - to _truly_ realize that they were _it_ \- that they’d stopped letting themselves doubt whether they were together for the long haul. 

It’s even more odd _now,_ to remember that, to think back to when he’d only been conscious for forty years and alive for 100 - so much has happened in the interval. 

_We've sent three kids through college, for Heaven’s sake!_

Eventually Tony pulls away; he still has a harder time keeping his breath than Steve does, which feels wrong, because Steve _should_ get old _sometime,_ shouldn’t he? Especially if that time was congruent with his husband’s maturation? 

Well, his _aging,_ at least.

“Found that marathon photo I tried to look for in 2032, remember, when Ginny had that school project?” 

“The family collage one, where she printed out photos from the Internet because she didn’t like the ones we gave her, and we kept it on the fridge for nearly a year anyway?”

“Yeah, that one,” Tony smiles back at him, and even though Steve imagines that Tony had at one point intended to actually show him the photo, they continue kissing until little the elder Virginia barges in through the door to the room they’re in. (She now occasionally goes by Virginia, although she'd always hated being called Virginia and preferred Pepper, until roughly a decade ago when she’d decided that since she couldn’t deny that she was getting older, she’d simply do it in style. Thus, those she’d met recently knew her birth name.)

“You two _do_ realize you’re supposed to be packed up and out of here in a week, right? I’m gonna call someone in to help, for goodness’ sake. Or at _least_ help you keep your hands to yourselves.”

“Pepper, we said we wanted to do this ourselves!” Tony whines, and she rolls her eyes at him in her classic response. 

“You also agreed that the Inhuman Academy could start moving into the house next Monday, and we’ll all be damned if that doesn’t happen the way it’s supposed to.”

“I sincerely doubt that Madame Ward would actually push us over -"

“I’m not _talking_ about the cliff,” Pepper cuts him off. “Now, both of you, keep packing. You’ll have plenty of time to make out and empty nest when you get to your _new_ house, I promise.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they respond in unison - Tony in the sarcastic yet obedient tone he reserves for only a choice few, and Steve, entirely genuinely. She chuckles at them, picks up a box which looks about as heavy as she is, and starts heading toward the door. One of the small AI’s rushes to physically open it for her. 

“I’m watching you two.”

“Pepper, that’s concerning, and gross,” quips Tony, and she turns back around with a look that would have preceded a growl years ago - but now, Tony only returns to work. Steve waves to Pepper, kisses Tony on the cheek, and continues with sending the bookcases out to the moving van with the AI.


End file.
